Wednesday, May 8, 2019

felony charges against five present
and former School Board member, the Iron County Sheriff’s Department hinted
that it may be conducting another investigation.

In an outstanding telecast by Rose
McBride on WFTW Channel 12 in Rhinelander she said that when she asked the Iron
County Sheriff’s Department to comment about the criminal felony charges, she
was told it could not because “this is an ongoing investigation”.(See
MSF 4/11/19 The News That Rocked Mercer)

So, what could the “ongoing
investigation” be about?The investigation
concerning the signing of the May 1, 2018, School Board letter and the
destruction of a public record appears to have been concluded with Iron County
Circuit Judge Patrick Madden mysterious dismissing them in an unprecedented
action.

A major remaining unresolved issue
involves the pay of Administrator Erik Torkelson.Since he was hired in 2011 by his
mother-in-law Kelly Kohegyi, president of the Mercer School Board at that time,
he has taken home pay and benefits far in excess of his what his contract
allows. Could the investigation be about that?

Torkelson’s 2011 contract limited his
pay to $98,000 and benefits to about $30,000. A July 2017 contract increased his base pay to
$113,500, but the contract is illegal because it was never approved by the
Board in an open session. During his
tenure, he has also been paid bonuses which, again, were illegal because they were never approved by the Board in open session.But, look at
what Mercer School documents show Torkelson actually has taken home in the past
several years:

2017-18$165,963

2016-17$168,641

2015-16$161,336

While Torkelson has been the
administrator and drawing such exorbitant compensation, the school’s ACT
composite scores have plummeted to well below state and national averages.Also, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction
School Report card score has placed Mercer 422nd in a list of all
422 Wisconsin school districts.

Hardly the kind of performance record
that warrants a pay package of $165,963.

Add to this that we are paying $24,910
per year to educate each Mercer student, compared with a state average of $12,942
and national average of $10,667. The average annual all-inclusive cost for
educating a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is $22,082.

Mercer school district documents
concerning Torkelson’s pay and benefits have been given to District Attorney Matthew
Tingstad, who along with Iron County Deputy Sheriff Lt. Paul Foryan, conducted
the earlier investigation.

Let’s hope the “ongoing
investigation” leads to Mercer taxpayers getting back some of their hard-earned
money.

For the love of all that is good, the dishonorable Patrick Madden should not preside over any other case regarding the Mercer School. I hope the DA, if he does file charges, immediately and concurrently asks for a different judge.

Some advice for CPA and Micah Magma – a member of your group has threatened people with bodily harm and damage to their property. The sheriff’s department has been alerted. Unless you restrain this person and not allow him to make his threats on your Facebook you could be involved in aiding and abetting if he carries out his threats. Suggest you get this individual some needed help.